8 ideas #1 - March 2015 - ERC Newsletter

u u u Going global

The first stop was in the southern corner of Africa. ERC President Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon visited Pretoria to meet with the Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, and senior officials of the Department of Science and Technology to, among other things, prepare the ground for a future agreement to encourage young South African researchers to become part of ERC research teams.

Two weeks later, the ERC headed for Europes highest-altitude city, Davos, Switzerland, to take part in another very international event, the World Economic Forum ( WEF). Leaders from some 100 countries gathered there with the aim to improve the state of the world and it was a chance for the ERC to bring in science into the debate (read more on p. 10).

After Europe, the next continent on the route was Asia. In February, the President gave a public lecture in Singapore at the prestigious graduate business school INSEAD, an event organised by the President of Nanyang Technological University, Prof. Bertil Andersson. President Bourguignon highlighted the ERCs ambition to increase the number of non-European candidates in its grant schemes.

Some 15,500 km away and two days later, Prof. Bourguignon arrived in San Jose, California, to take part in the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where he engaged with top scientists, policy maker and the press. Eight ERC grantees presented their ground-breaking research at this meeting in Silicon Valley (see p. 10). The ERC also went to the Destination Europe events on the West and East coasts of the US, in San Jose and Boston. The Commissions Deputy Director General of Research and Innovation, Wolfgang Burtscher, as well as speakers from Marie Skodowska-Curie actions and some national funding bodies conveyed a message that Europe is open for talent from around the world. Along with an ERC grantee, Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Dr Jose Labastida and Dr Alejandro Martin-Hobdey from the ERC promoted its funding for excellent scientists with creative ideas.

Next, the ERC will attend two events in May: the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle, and the 4th Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council, Tokyo. A month later, at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, Prof. Sir Tim Hunt, ERC Scientific Council member and Nobel laureate and ERC grantees will speak about how the ERC can address the needs of science journalists in an increasingly connected world.

ERC and Argentina seal deal

One of the cornerstones of the ERC strategy to boost brain circulation is based on cooperation initiatives with non-European partners. Argentina is the third country, after the US and South Korea, to sign an agreement to help its top researchers, supported at the national level, to become part of ERC-funded teams in Europe for up to twelve months. The agreement was officially signed by the Argentinian Minister of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, Lino Baraao, and the Director for International Cooperation of the Commissions Research and Innovation DG, Maria Cristina Russo, on 13 March in Buenos Aires (read more).

In pursuit of top talent worldwideIn its quest to attract more talent overseas, the ERC has visited four continents since January, including South America, where a cooperation agreement was signed with Argentina.

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Director Russo and Minister Baraao sign the agreement

http://erc.europa.eu/media-and-events/events/aaas-annual-meeting-2015http://erc.europa.eu/media-and-events/events/aaas-annual-meeting-2015http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?pg=destinationEuropehttp://erc.europa.eu/media-and-events/events/international-conference-robotics-and-automationhttp://erc.europa.eu/media-and-events/events/international-conference-robotics-and-automationhttp://www.globalresearchcouncil.org/meetings/2015-annual-meetinghttp://www.wcsj2015.or.kr/wcsj2015/main/main.phphttp://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/press_release/files/Highlight_ERC-Argentina_agreement.pdf

9ideas #1 - March 2015 - ERC Newsletter

u u uGoing global

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